A new Madison presidency episode is now available!
Jan. 9, 2022

3.40 – Jefferson Post-Presidency

3.40 – Jefferson Post-Presidency

Year(s) Discussed: 1809-1826 After leaving the presidency, Thomas Jefferson found himself kept quite busy with both public business and personal matters. While striving to be a doting grandfather and fretting over his family’s life struggles, the former president worked in vain to escape the vicious cycle of debt in which he had become trapped. Meanwhile, he used his retirement to take on the task of improving public education in Virginia which inevitably landed him in the middle of political struggles once more.

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Season 3 03 - Thomas Jefferson

Special thanks to Kenny Ryan from the [Abridged] Presidential Histories podcast for providing the intro quote for this episode and to Alex Van Rose for his audio editing work!

The transcript for this episode can be found here.

  • Adams, John. “To Thomas Jefferson, 1 January 1812,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-5735. [Last Accessed: 23 Nov 2021]
  • Ammon, Harry. James Monroe: The Quest for National Identity. Charlottesville, VA and London: University Press of Virginia, 1999 [1971].
  • Betts, Edwin Morris, and James Adam Bear, Jr. The Family Letters of Thomas Jefferson. Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia. 1995 [1966].
  • Crawford, Alan Pell. Twilight at Monticello: The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson. New York: Random House, 2008.
  • Gaines, William H, Jr. Thomas Mann Randolph: Jefferson’s Son-in-Law. Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1966.
  • Gordon-Reed, Annette. The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. New York and London: W W Norton & Co, 2008.
  • Historical Currency Converter (test version 1.0). http://www.historicalstatistics.org/Currencyconverter.html. [Last Accessed: 28 Nov 2021]
  • Jefferson, Thomas. “To John Wayles Eppes, 24 June 1813,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-06-02-0200. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 6, 11 March to 27 November 1813, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009, pp. 220–226.] [Last Accessed: 22 Nov 2021]
  • Jefferson, Thomas. “To Samuel H. Smith, 21 September 1814,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-07-02-0484-0003. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 7, 28 November 1813 to 30 September 1814, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2010, pp. 681–684.] [Last Accessed: 24 Nov 2021]
  • Jefferson, Thomas. “To John Adams, 1 August 1816,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-10-02-0173. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 10, May 1816 to 18 January 1817, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013, pp. 284–286.] [Last Accessed: 16 Nov 2021]
  • Ketcham, Ralph. James Madison: A Biography. Charlottesville, VA and London: University Press of Virginia, 1994 [1971].
  • Kierner, Cynthia A. Martha Jefferson Randolph, Daughter of Monticello: Her Life and Times. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2012.
  • Landry, Jerry. The Presidencies of the United States. 2017-2021. http://presidencies.blubrry.com.
  • Malone, Dumas. The Sage of Monticello: Jefferson and His Time, Volume Six. Boston: Little, Brown and Co, 1981.
  • McCullough, David. John Adams. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001.
  • “Nicholas, Wilson Cary, 1761-1820.” Biographical Directory of the United States Congress. https://bioguide.congress.gov/search/bio/N000086. [Last Accessed: 27 Nov 2021]
  • Nicholas, Wilson Cary. “To Thomas Jefferson, 5 August 1819,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-14-02-0551. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Retirement Series, vol. 14, 1 February to 31 August 1819, ed. J. Jefferson Looney. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2017, pp. 586–588.]
  • Rush, Benjamin. “To John Adams, 17 October 1809,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Adams/99-02-02-5450. [Last Accessed: 23 Nov 2021]
  • Sloan, Herbert E. Principle & Interest: Thomas Jefferson and the Problem of Debt. Charlottesville, VA and London: University Press of Virginia, 2001 [1995].
  • Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. “John Wayles Eppes.” https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/john-wayles-eppes. [Last Accessed: 22 Nov 2021]

Featured Image: “Thomas Jefferson” by Thomas Sully [c. 1821], courtesy of Wikipedia

Intro and Outro Music: Selections from “Jefferson and Liberty” as performed by The Itinerant Band